August 2017

Buckden Roundabout

August 2017

Sports & Transport

Buckden Tennis Club – has the excitement of Wimbledon made you want to pick up a racket ..?!

We have 4 all-weather hard-courts waiting for you to play on. The courts are open 7 days a week, all year round, each with

floodlighting to county standard. Our friendly club welcomes people of all standards and ages.

We have a full range of club knock-out tournaments during the summer as well as men’s, ladies and mixed teams competing in

Hunts & Peterborough and Cambridgeshire Leagues throughout the year. Upcoming events include the Chairman's Cup and

BBQ on the 12th August and our monthly tea tournament on 20th August.

Email us at

buckdentennisclub@gmail.com

if you would like to enter. More details are found on our website and facebook

page shown below.

For the social player we meet on Saturdays and Sundays mornings and Wednesday evenings. All members are welcome – no

one is left out. The courts are free to members to use at other times if they wish to arrange their own games. For those looking

to brush up their skills, or learn new techniques, we have coaching available for adults and juniors through our LTA Qualified

Coach Alex Button (Tel

07850031172

). Coaching is available on 1:1 basis and group sessions can also be arranged.

If you are interested in joining the club please contact us through our Chairman Clare Fraser on

07740456972

or visit our web-

site at

www.buckdentennis.org.uk

or our Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/buckdentennisclub

Level Crossing at Offord

The level crossing at Offord has long been a source of concern for the residents of both villages, both because of the queues

generated given the amount of time the barrier is down, and the potential for a serious incident to take place.

18 months ago we thought there was at last a solution to this. Network Rail were looking to close all level crossings on the East

Coast Main Line as part of the upgrade to electrification and signalling which would enable them to run trains closer together

and therefore provide more services to all stations on the line. There was an extensive public consultation, and a final proposal

was published to replace the level crossing with a bridge over the railway. Sadly, not long after that, Network Rail announced a

massive cut to their infrastructure spending – including all the ECML level crossing proposals.

As the other upgrades to the ECML are still planned to happen over the next 5 years, the issues we are seeing at the moment

are only going to get worse! We expect the amount of time the barrier is closed to increase over the next 5 years to a point

where it could be closed for more than 50% of the time during peak periods!

Network Rail have stated that they will look at each location on an individual basis to determine what, if any, work needs to be

done to improve matters. To this end, Buckden Parish Council, with the support of both our District and County Councillors and

our local MP, want to try and influence Network Rail into making the provision of a suitable alternative to the Offord level cross-

ing a priority.

To help with this, we are asking you to submit reports of any incidents or excessive queuing you have observed, preferably with

photos if possible. I myself have seen what could have been a very serious incident in the last 3 months – a car almost trapped

between the 2 sets of barriers as a consequence of queuing traffic over the 2 narrow bridges. I have also seen traffic queuing

both ways on the B1043 100 yards or more beyond Station Lane.

Please submit your reports and photos to the Roundabout at

editor@buckdenroundabout.info

and we will pass them onto the

Parish Council.

A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Upgrade—Latest News

Highways England write: The project team delivering the biggest road upgrade under

construction in the UK have been sharing an update about ongoing work on site, with-

in the surrounding environment and with local communities. New aerial photographs

have been published revealing how the new road is emerging. Alongside this pro-

gress, foundations and bridge columns for some of the project’s 34 new bridges have

been installed and the team have been giving an update on the industry leading care

for the environment that the project is delivering while building the new road. The

rest of the update with much more detailed information can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a14-cambridge-to-huntington-upgrade-

takes-shape